Alright, full disclosure admittance/clarification of something not clarified last week: the comics and tracks I pick for this column do not follow any kind of specified “if this, then…” formula. In other words, from week to week either the comic will come first in my thought process and have a piece of music paired with it, or the music will come first and have a comic applied to it…it is possible they could come simultaneously, but I doubt it.
That having been said, this week’s pairing is definitely a “music first” one…potentially to the dismay of most of the readers on here and probably my fellow staff members as well. To them I say: suck it up and keep reading…this one actually works.
Also, FYI: spoilers for Siege #4 and I guess a 9 year-old Small Brown Bike record are in effect.
Why music first this week, might you ask? Because I saw Michigan’s incomparable Small Brown Bike at what may be the best venue in Boston for live music (Great Scott) last night…and they killed it. Hence, this week’s soundtrack pick comes from the much beloved Small Brown Bike catalogue…specifically one record (2001’s Dead Reckoning, available everywhere No Idea Records releases are sold (AKA nowhere)) and from that record, even more specifically, track 3…a little tune called “See You In Hell.”
Dead Reckoning is considered by many to the quintessential Small Brown Bike record (I, for the record, disagree…that would be 2003’s The River Bed) and this track exemplifies SBB’s entire post-hardcore sound incredibly well and is, personally, one of my favorites (and also what they opened with last night as well as when I saw them at The Fest 8 last October.) Starting off slow and stripped down we are greeted with the song’s lead guitar part before the entire band kicks in for a verse and a half before singer Mike Reed‘s vocals enter like a bullet. Clocking in at 3 minutes and 16 seconds, the song capitalizes on SBB’s biting yet atmospheric song writing style and manages to create a sense of panicked urgency. As the song progresses into the vocal bridge, it begins to take on almost redemptive attribute before it ends on an airy, sustained note that is in a lot of ways the polar opposite of the biting intro of the song.
The more I process that song over and over in my head, the more I realize that the comic it can be set against is completely obvious…the arguable headliner of Marvel’s output this week, Siege #4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel. The final installment of Marvel’s latest “not an event comic (but really kind of an event comic *snicker*)”, this issue managed to deliver a great widescreen adventure despite being spoiled by other books that shipped before it and the ending being pretty obvious two issues ago (come on, you really think once Osborn had The Sentry kill Ares that it was gonna end any other way? Smarten up.) Bendis certainly knows how to write to Coipel’s artistic strengths, as this issue had tons of justifiable explosions (wanna see an unjustified explosion? Read anything James Robinson has written the past three months), considerable intrigue and a few left turns that I will admit would have been a little surprising had they not been spoiled the week before. Then of course there was the obvious status quo shift at the end (it is a Marvel event after all) and a few bits of nonsensical but not so much so that they aren’t fun to watch moments (like for instance how Thor’s hammer was the thing to take out the uber-powered Sentry despite being useless against him earlier in the mini-series, AFTER that very same Sentry fought off the power of the Norn Stones which can LITERALLY DO ANYTHING just pages before.)
How do these two line up? Simple: the song structure and the story structure of the issue synch up almost perfectly. If there was a bit of a calm before the action to synch up with the stripped down intro to the song, it WOULD be perfect (I guess the recap page could fill that spot but that seems kinda lame…and by kinda, I mean super lame…since it isn’t even one of the funny recap pages that Peter David does…just a standard recap…and a wordy one at that.) For the sake of the article, let’s assume the issue begins where the full band launches in on the track…much like the band booms at that point, the issue opens with The Sentry/Void laying a massive ton of hell onto the assembled heroes of the Marvel Universe. As the battle progresses, we get to the point where Loki decides he’s made his mistake and takes the Norn Stones from The Hood and bestows their power on the Avengers…this little bit synchs pretty well with the first mini-bridge and the first chorus of the track. The point in the issue where The Sentry is all “blah blah kill me” all the way on through where Thor throws his remains into the sun (like a total boss) works great with the entire full bridge of the track not only sonically, but lyrically as well…”home is where you die/there’s no second chance” describes that scene pretty damn well if I have to say so myself (and I do have to…and I do say so myself.) Bringing it on home, as the issue itself ends in its cushy, albeit unsurprising as its all Marvel has been talking about since December, new status quo with its mushy, faux-inspirational double page spread, the sustained one-note ending of the track slips in pretty fully, bringing this pairing to a healthy conclusion.
Recap:
Small Brown Bike — Dead Reckoning
No Idea Records, 2001
Choice Track: See You in Hell (although “This Ship Will Burn” is also a jam)
Pairs With…
Siege #4
By Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel
Joshua Mocle thinks that if you live in or near Manhattan, Philly or DC and don’t go catch the Bridge and Tunnel/Small Brown Bike tour over the next three days then you don’t have a soul and should consider ending it all. To read his non-explicitly-comic-related diatribes, check out thoughtgrenade.
